“When I start a show, I’m very timid and nervous for weeks and months… You start with an idea and you believe in it... Some days are big days. You jump. You get a whole excitable, marvelous… wonderful it-doesn’t-balance, what-the-hell-are we going-to-do feeling.” –Diana Vreeland, in "Particular Passions: Talks With Women Who Have Shaped our Times" talking about her exhibitions for the Costume Institute that she established at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Fashion comes down through an attenuated twisting funnel propelled by an idea that has been percolating in the “air.” Fashion takes shape through multiple paths at the hands of designers and stylists. Buyers and the media determine what the public sees. Throw in a dollop of some celebrity wearing a particular style and history is in the making. But ultimately the judge is the buying public. To be a part of the lexicon of style that goes down through the ages, it’s the vision of a woman like Diana Vreeland who picked, promoted and established what was worthy of being remembered with stunning blockbuster exhibits at the Met.

Who can determine whether the shoe in the photograph will “endure.” It should, just because this "look" will go out of style faster than it came in. After resting in a closet for 40 years these shoes will “endure” because they’ll still be new.

Could the style-maker Diana Vreeland make a fashion like these shoes “stick?” Read a brief chapter, the oral biography Vreeland, whose pioneering exhibitions at The Metropolitan Museum of Art elevated fashion to a fine art.